Editions – One Hundred Views of Mitate

Nana Shiomi ‘One Hundred Views of Mitate’ 15 May – 13 June 2009 Exhibition of Japanese Woodblocks by Nana Shiomi. MITATE is a key Japanese concept of analogy between disparate objects, and Shiomi uses it here to allow the viewer a wide choice of possible meanings and free associations.

Hundred Views of MITATE Series now reached on No.86, and the series will finish its full complement of 100 prints in 2009. This series contains 100 icons which are profoundly relevant to Japanese Culture. All the symbols are juxtaposed equally. As a Japanese Woodcut Printmaker, using natural materials such as wood, paper and water is a fundamental aspect of her work.

MITATE refers to a process of thought that Japanese culture has enjoyed since ancient times, a form of analogy comparing one thing to another. The white sand and rock formations in a Japanese garden, for example, are in reality nothing more than sand and rocks, but enjoying the free association the viewer can see in them such images as “island in the sea”, or “the universe and the self”, or so on. Objects become more than single elements when repositioned in their total context, and their relationships can then be seen in a new light.

Nana Shiomi studied in Japan and took an MA in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art. Nana Shiomi’s theme is Art about Culture or Art about Art. After a period of re-examining Western culture in the early nineties, she has now moved on to a consideration of her own Japanese culture. Shiomi often makes reference to masterpieces from the Japanese ukiyo-e tradition in her own work.